Oak Lane Community Action Association (OLCAA)
of East Oak Lane

Ellwood's New Principal

By Bernadette Tanksley, August 30, 2018

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Incoming principal, Ms. Zaida Alfaro Bultes, spent a good portion of the month of July familiarizing herself with Ellwood School and its community.  She generously consented to an interview with OLCAA while she was at the school looking things over and preparing for the year ahead in her new position.

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Ms. Alfaro may be new to Ellwood but she is no stranger to the responsibilities of leadership in the Philadelphia school system where she has spent close to 30 years.  During 22 years at Potter Thomas School (at 3001 N. 6th St., with an enrollment of 559), she was called upon to serve in various leadership capacities, including Assistant Principal, Facilitator, and Reading and Math coach.  Then she accepted the invitation to serve as principal at Andrew J. Morrison School (K-8, at 5100 N. 3rd St., enrollment 692), where she spent the past five years.

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She arrives at Ellwood ready for the challenge of strengthening student performance, nurturing parent participation, and engaging community in the business of high achievement for the 288 K to 5 students enrolled at Ellwood.

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She is conscious of staff development resources, both required and optional, and has taken steps to connect Ellwood staff to those resources even before her actual arrival.

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Growing up in the area of “the Badlands” at 3rd & Indiana, she made a personal decision to attend college even though it was hardly the expectation of those around her. Her personal history led her to arrive at the task of public education with an attitude of “Let’s make it better; the possibilities are endless for children to be successful even in poverty driven schools.”

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Ms. Alfaro recognizes the importance of teamwork within her staff, but she is anxious to involve volunteers and community organizations in the business of making Ellwood the best that it can be.

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Hopefully the East Oak Lane community will step forward and welcome our new principal with the kind of support and encouragement that makes good schools better and better schools great.

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